Chapter II: The Beast

"FIRE!" Jason shouted with all his breath and the Mighty Megazord fired his guns in the direction of Goldar. The colossal warrior received an impact on the chest, injuring him and creating explosions around. Goldar raised his saber and with a heavy swing, his sword cut through the air creating a lightning bolt, which impacted on the Megazord.

The tension was flooding the battlefield, the Megazord in Tank mode was fighting fiercely against the golden warrior. Inside the Cockpit, the rangers barely resisted the impact.

"We need more power." exclaimed Billy from his console.

"Solar impulse almost ready." Answered Trini.

Jason was preparing to counterattack, when the Megazord began to tremble violently, Goldar used his sword to create a crack in the ground, trapping the bulky Megazord. The alarms began to sound inside the robotic colossus.
Meanwhile, Goldar was approaching slowly, swinging his sword, mocking them, each step rumbling with fervor on the battlefield.

"What a pathetic sight." Goldar spit with venom in his voice, his sword emanating electricity "Die."

Jason opened his eyes abruptly, staring at the ceiling for a moment as his vision slowly adjusted.

"What a strange ceiling." he said to himself as he took a seat on the edge of the bed, his mind very confused. "What happened?" he thought as he turned his head around and examined the room; he saw some Karate Medals hanging from one corner, in front of him was a desk with a laptop and a copy The Old man and the Sea, recognizing the objects in the room, he realized he was in his room.

Jason placed his hands on his forehead, took a long breath and then observed his arms. He noticed that his arms looked stronger, he lifted the shirt he was wearing, and noticed that his abs looked much more defined.

"What in the…" he began, but a loud knock on his door interrupted his thoughts.

"Jason! Son, please come down." He heard the voice of his father on the other side of the door.

"In a moment pops." He answered; Jason got up from the bed and changed his clothes, he put on skinny blue jeans, a pair of vans sneakers and a Red New Order T-shirt, he contemplated his room for a second and the proceeded to open the door and head downstairs.

As he walked down the main stairs, he caught a glimpse of Zack and his family sitting in the living room with his parents.

"Sam, we really don't know how to thank you." Said Zack's mother

"Don't worry about that… during these times of crisis, we must help each other the best we can, and I think Jason is going to like this." Said Sam Scott, Jason's father.

Jason continued to walk towards the room and once he entered, everyone in the room turned to see him.

"Hey, what's up?" he said with a serene tone in his voice.

"Walter's offices were left in ruins yesterday, fortunately the corporate is going to reassign him, so he will not lose the income, however he will have to relocate to the headquarters in Cross World City." Said Sam

"Although I'm more than grateful for the opportunity, Zack must finish High School at Angel Grove… so your father kindly offered to welcome him in your home, for a while, of course." Said Zack's father as he took his son's hand.

"Looks like we're going to be Roomies dude." Zack said excitedly.

Jason just smiled at the news.

"How convenient, only when the world is going to hell, you come to visit your daughter." Said a woman in her 40's, her expression one of anger. In front of her was a middle-aged man, wearing an elegant suit.

"Listen Maddy, as soon as I saw the news... I..." the man paused thinking carefully his next response "I'm sorry." Said the man, sighing. "You're right, I should have come earlier."

"But of course I'm right." She said through his teeth "After all, you're a damn inconsiderate bastard!" the woman finally shouted.

"You don't have to be a bitch about it!" The man exploded back.

"It's been a whole year!"

From the stairs, Kimberly observed how her mother and father argued at the door of their house, they had separated just a year ago; the circumstances were not friendly at all, and in all that time this was the first time that his father stepped into her house.

The young girl took her cell phone from her pocket, and began to write a message to Trini.

"How are things going at home?" She sent.

"Bored, my parents took it pretty well, all things considered."

"That's great, mine only fight."

"Help is on the way."

Kim observed the last message confused

"Help is on the way ...?" She whispered to herself.

"What do you mean?" Kim texted back

A few minutes passed and her parents continued arguing, only now they did in the kitchen. Kimberly did not receive a response from Trini so the young teenager got up from the stairs, and was about to leave her house to anywhere, as long as it was a place away from her parents.
She went down the stairs and approached the door, on her way out she paused and turned a moment towards the kitchen; her parents were still fighting, she sighed deeply and was about to open the door when the strong sound of a knock took her out of her thoughts, making her scream a bit out of fright.

"Shit." he exclaimed while his heart beat at full speed, she took a breath and opened the door in front of her.

"I told you that help was on the way." said a cheerful Trini outside Kim's house.

Kimberly shone with happiness at the sight of her dear friend.

"Let's bounce, girl." Kim said smiling. She took Trini by the arm and the two girls walked towards the nearest park.

"We should pay Billy a visit, and see how he's holding up." Jason said to Zack.

The Youngsters were in the backyard of Jason's house, throwing a football ball at each other.

"You're right." Jason replied abruptly, throwing the ball with much more force he intended to.

"Are you sure you're okay bro?" Zack observed Jason as he grabbed the ball with little effort.

"Sure, why do you say that?"

"You've been very quiet… it's about this leader thing?"

Jason did not answer, just scratched the back of his neck, and looked at the floor for a moment.

"Come on, Jase." Zack said as he put an arm over his shoulder. "Let's go see Billy."

"Yeah, let's go"

With that both teenagers started walking towards Billy's house, which was not far, just a few streets away. On the way, they both noticed how quiet the neighborhood was today. Once they reached the street where the Cranston residence was, they could see Billy in his garage working hard on some project; cables and computers in pieces were around him while the young man soldered some components on his desk.

"Yo! Billy!" Jason yelled and Billy turned immediately to his two friends, a big smile on his face.

"What are you doing man?" Zack continued as they entered Billy's garage.

Billy's garage was the dream of every geek, he had lots of equipment and technology for his numerous projects. In the middle of the work space was Billy at his desk, as they got closer they noticed what he was working on; The Power Morpher of the Blue Ranger posed disassembled on a metallic surface with several wires attached, these connected to various devices that measured their properties.
While the information was analyzed from the computer, on one of his hands, Billy held a silver colored device, in the other he held a soldering iron, with which he was welding the device with tiny electronic components.

"These devices are fascinating, technology like this, according to modern science, technically should not exist." said Billy excitedly as he put aside what he was doing and pointed towards the Power Morpher

"These Power Morphers by themselves, appear to be no more than piece of stone and metal, however... observe those small retention clips in the cavity where the power coin goes." Billy took a wire and carefully placed it on one of the clips, took out his Power Coin from his pocket, placed it on the table and carefully touched it with the other end of the cable.

"Here we go." Said Billy with childish smile on his face.

The three Rangers watched in awe as the rocky relief of the center of the Power Morpher glowed for a few seconds with a strong blue color; immediately the material began to change shape, taking the form of a hexagonal tessellation. The surface deformed as if it were the eye of a hurricane, revealing a complex mechanism below, rotating constantly.

"Billy, what the hell is that?" Jason asked without taking his eyes off the device.

"Perpetual Motion." Billy said proudly, "In other words… Infinite Energy, but to be exact ..." he carefully took the wires and separated them, causing the Power Morpher to stop spinning, thus returning to its original state.

"The Power Coins are the source of energy, these devices only channel and redistribute it." Billy adjusted his lenses and proceeded to turn off all his equipment, took the Power Morpher and quickly reassembled it.

"Billy, are you telling us, that these little coins can give infinite energy? To anything?" Zack said amazed by the discovery of his genius friend.

"With the right means, it is possible, hypothetically ... but I would need to study more on the subject."

"I think we should go back and find out more about It." said Zack thinking out loud; both turned to see Jason, it seemed that both expected the approval of his friend.

"Back to where?" Jason asked somewhat confused

"To the command center, of course." Billy answered and Jason just blinked a few times.

"Okay, I guess."

Zack and Billy collided hands happily

"Fuck yeah! Road trip!" Zack said excitedly.

"I'll go get the car, we can pick up Kim and Tri on the way." Billy began to search the drawers of his desk, until he found a car key.

"Billy... what car?" asked Jason

"The one we stole yesterday." Billy said matter-of-factly.

Trini and Kimberly were in a park not far from Billy's house, the female rangers were sitting on a bench, chatting comfortably.

"I cannot stop thinking that our lives will never be the same again."

"Nobody on this planet will be the same again." Said Trini observing the horizon

"I know ..." sighed the young pink ranger "Their lives now fall on our shoulders."

"I trust your good hands Kim, as well as the others."

"Thank you, Tri."

The conversation was interrupted by the sound of Trini's Ringtone; A Classic song by Siouxsie & the Banshees: Cities in Dust.

"…But oh, your city lies in dust, my friend

Oh, oh your city lies in dust, my friend…" The elegant voice of Siouxsie echoed in the empty park.

"That's a Good tune." Kimberly said

Trini looked for her cell phone in her purse and answered the call.

"Hey tiger girl, are you with Kim?" she heard Zack's playful voice on the other side of the line.

"Yes, I am, why?"

"We are going to pick you up, team meeting at Witch Mountain"

Trini giggled when she heard this

"Where are you?" Zack asked.

"Down the Park, we are sitting on a bench"

"See you in a bit."

"Okay dude, we'll wait for you."

"What's going on?" Kim asked once the Trini ended the call.

"Team Meeting."

"Awesome."

The two young women saw in the distance a fairly familiar Volkswagen approaching from the end of the street, inside was Billy at the wheel, Jason in the passenger seat and Zack in the back seat.

"Is that...?" Kim asked as she put her hand on her forehead to see better.

"Oh my god, I can't believe Billy's really going to keep that car." Trini put her fingers between her eyes and massaged a little.

Once the vehicle approached the park, as if out of a Cheech & Chong movie, they noticed Smoke coming out of the rear windows of the car.

Kim immediately recognized the strange smell: Marijuana.

"Is this a damn joke?!" Kim said furiously once the car pulled up next to them. "Are you guys using drugs?!" She waved her thin hands in the air.

"Kim, calm down please." Said Trini behind her.

"CALM DOWN?! Did all of you lose your head?" screamed as she looked at each of her friends on the face, each giving her a confused look, except for Zack who oddly enough, remained calmed.

"Kim ..." Billy said but Kimberly interrupted him immediately

"Don't Billy, just don't, this is SO wrong."

"It's really not that big of a dea ..." Jason said but like Billy he was quickly interrupted.

"Are you crazy? We're talking drugs here." Said an increasingly annoying Kimberly, the young woman could not understand how her friends could not see things like her.

Meanwhile Zack observed the agitated conversation from the back of the car, while smoking his joint with tranquility. Kim noticed this and could not help but explode at him.

"GET RID OF THAT SHIT IMMEDIATELY ZACK!"

Zack just watched her for a moment, placed the joint between his lips and held his Medical Marijuana card in front of her.

"What the..?" Kim stammered and snatched the credential from Zack's hands

"When..." she murmured and observed the date on the card. "Oh ..." she said to herself, remembering that lately she has not been exactly "in touch" with them.

"As Jason said, it's really not that big of a deal." Zack said calmly "Almost a year ago I started having insomnia problems, I went to the doctor, they examined me and gave me a choice between a lot of pills ... or this." Zack finished holding the joint in his hand.

"To be honest I was as shocked at first too." Trini said "But once I researched on the subject, well… I understood."

"Listen Kim, Cannabis is not harmful, on the contrary it can be beneficial for a number of situations and conditions. I am not saying that substance abuse is good, but there are many taboos around these, which cause many; including me at some point, to adopt an unfounded paranoia about this flower." Kim observed and listened to Billy with attention, analyzing and reflecting deeply on his words.
"As a scientist, I cannot let these social dogmas influence my logical and critical thinking, and mustn't allow these to cause a rupture in our friendship." Billy took a deep breath

"I hope you can understand this."

Kim reflected on Billy's speech, the young man always had the ability to speak fluently. After thinking about it, she realized that Billy was right, the only reason why Kim had that opinion on the subject, is because her parents all the time told her the same thing. Her now separated parents, who are probably still yelling at each other right now.

Why was she so angry about it? She asked herself and sighed; because it was not about Zack doing drugs at all, she was angry at her parents. She should not have exploited that way with Zack. It was not fair to him. She realized that she just took the opportunity to unload her anger on them, and behave like a bitch, again.

"I'm really sorry Zack, actually, I… apologize to everyone, I was wrong of me to shout at you." The pink ranger sighed, squeezed her hands and looked straight into her friends' eyes "Especially for something that does not concern me at all."

"Do not talk like that Kim, we're friends ... we're a team." Jason said as he put his hand on his friend's shoulder.

"That means one for all, and all for one." Trini added

"Just like The Avengers!" Zack added laughing

The rest began to laugh at the silly comment, and Kimberly couldn't help but laugh with them.

"That doesn't explain why you are smoking pot right now." The Pink ranger added between laughs.

"To pacify my mind and shit, y'know." Zack laughed back.

The headquarters of NASADA had not seen so much tension, chaos and movement since the cold war. What was supposed to be one of humanity's greatest achievements, became the vehicle of its own destruction. But the most important questions that day were, who the Power Rangers were? Where they came from? And, why did they save their butts?

General Norquist held a high rank meeting at the main conference room with Mac and Sarah along with him. In front of them were a dozen of high rank officers sitting and observing carefully the presentation that was taking place.

"As you can see in the images... the crew, for reasons still unknown, at this point decided to change the route of exploration and therefore, accidentally released the creatures." Mac explained as he showed various pictures of the Landing Footage through a projector.

"Given the abilities of these creatures, we do not rule out their influence on the crew."

"Has there been any contact since the incident?" Asked one of the generals.

"Not yet." Replied General Norquist

The room immediately was filled with whispers and comments.

"Ok, it's time to move on to the next topic." General Norquist quickly said out loud, to calm the room.

"The Power Rangers" Captain Mitchell interrupted from his seat at the front.

"Obviously their military capabilities far exceed ours… only five of them was more than enough to effectively repel the ground forces of Rita Repulsa." The young captain continued as he rose from his seat.

"And its armed vehicles, those are incomparable with anything, and I mean anything that we or the Russians currently have, that technology surpasses us for hundreds of years, if not thousands"

"In that matter I'm afraid your supposition is wrong and at the same time correct." Said a smiling Mac, he approached his laptop, grabbed the mouse and after a few clicks, a photograph of a piece of metal was shown through the projector.

"This was recovered from the quarantine zone." He said pointing to the picture

"We are sure that this is a piece of their giant robot, measuring 4 meters long by 2 wide, this piece was detached when the Golden creature hit his sword against the robot."

"We have examined it very accurately, however the information obtained only creates more questions than answers." Sarah continued to explain.

"According to the carbon test ... this technology predates humanity."

"This could mean that those things have been around longer than us."

The Room went silent at this declaration, nobody knew what to think of this information, this changed every single thing about human society, and that terrified the men inside the room.

"We need to make contact." General Norquist concluded.

Inside the new motorized acquisition of Billy, Jason contemplated the desert landscape through the window, without paying any attention to the conversation his friends were having at that moment.

They were crossing some point between Sierra Pelona and Vazquez rocks, the view of the Mountain Range was spectacular, Jason observed in the distance a great mountain that stood out among others, while watching it, the young Red Ranger began to get lost in his thoughts, slowly closing his eyes and drifting away in sleep.

"What a pathetic sight." He heard the horrific voice of Goldar exclaim, suddenly Jason found himself back inside the megazord, fully morphed.

"Die." Goldar began to run towards them, and with a big jump, from the air he swung his sword creating a bolt of electric energy that hit the trapped Megazord. Upon landing, Goldar once again attacked the colossal battle tank; this time receiving double the damage, electricity and sparks came from various parts of the robot culminating in an explosion in the front of the vehicle making a small piece of the armor fell to the ground, creating a crater.

Goldar was preparing to attack a third time, when the Megazord fired both cannons, hitting him in the chest, making him drop his sword and driving him several kilometers away from them.

"We need to activate the battle mode." The Blue Ranger reported while holding the controls on his console.

"Let's do this!" Jason shouted between gasps, placed both hands on their controls causing them to light up.

"Right!" the rest replied in unison, imitating Jason's actions, they placed their hands on the controls.

"Megazord sequence has been started." a Robotic voice echoed in the cockpit and in a matter of seconds the Megazord began to transform and rearrange itself; taking the form of a colossal humanoid mecha. Once the Pterodactyl Zord reconnected to the Megazord's chest, the same computerized voice boomed once more:

"Megazord activated!"

Both giants began to fight, exchanging thrusts, blows and kicks. Meanwhile far away on the roofs of the tallest buildings, crowds of people watched with amazement the confrontation.

Goldar managed to dodge one of the Megazord's blows, rolling on the ground and taking his sword once more. The Rangers could not react in time and were hit again by the beam of electric energy from Goldar sword.

The Megazord managed to stand the energy blast, and activated the propellers on the sole of his feet, dashing furiously toward Goldar.

Using the momentum, the Megazord used his powerful fists to hit several blows to Goldar's chest, who awkwardly used one of his feet to kick the giant in the chest, making him go back several steps.

"Rangers, Call for the power Sword." Zordon informed the rangers through the communicators of their helmets.

The red-hot giant threw a kick against the feet of Goldar, making him trip and pushing him to the ground, the rangers took advantage of the moment and Jason proceeded to summon the Power Sword:

"By the power of the guardian beasts, we invoke the horn of god, give us your strength and come forward, POWER SWORD!"

In an instant, the heavens opened and wrapped in lightning, a brilliant and beautiful sword fell to the earth. The Megazord immediately took the handle with both hands, took off the sword from the ground and stabbed the golden giant in the side.

Goldar shrieked in pain, and clumsily threw his sword at the head of the giant Robot, the impact was violent and the Megazord stepped back in reaction but managed to land a blow to the stomach of the giant warrior, throwing him to the ground.

Inside the Megazord, the alarms sounded constantly and Jason barely remained conscious, in the last attack he received several blows and impacts too.

"We need to finish this." Jason exclaimed between his teeth.

The Megazord began to maneuver his sword, while energy and electricity accumulated in it, Goldar, upon noticing this decided to withdraw from the battlefield.

"This is not over, I'll be back!" Shouted the bluish ape as he placed his left hand on his shoulder and disappeared.

The Battlefield fell into silence, as the imposing figure of the Megazord rested on the Horizon.

The whole landscape entered in silence while the imposing figure of the Megazord settled on the horizon, the Power Rangers had been victorious. The young warriors came out of the Megazord and climbed on their shoulders to admire the landscape better. In the distance they watched the crowds watching them from the tall buildings and streets.

"YEEEES!" Zack scream full of emotion and happiness. "WE FUCKING DID IT."

"I cannot believe everything that just happened." Kimberly said.

"This is completely Surreal, and it happened so fast ... however." Billy said as he clenched his fist. "This feels right."

"We are heroes, we saved Angel Grove." Said Trini placing her hands on the shoulders of Kimberly and Billy.

Meanwhile Jason was staring at the city, he had been silent since Goldar had left.

"Hey Jase, are you okay?" Zack asked Jason

Jason turned to see Zack and his eyes clouded, he lost his balance and almost falling on his back on the Megazord.

"Jase!" Zack exclaimed crouching and taking the pulse, the red Ranger could only hear the faint voice of his friend.

"Jase." he heard again, but this time louder.

"Jase, wake up man, we're here." Jason opened his eyes abruptly and somewhat confused. He shook his head and looked around, he was inside Billy's car and they had stopped in front of a huge rock formation.

"This is the entrance, right?" Jason asked as he stepped out of the car

"Yes, it is dude" Said Zack mockingly.

"To the Command Center?" he asked again

"Yes…" Zack answered

"Ok, let's go."

AN: Shorter Chapter this time, but delivered sooner than expected, more than anything a transitional chapter to better introduce the Rangers. In the next chapter things get hot, we explore more the motivations of Rita and Zordon, and more important the second confrontation, this time outside of Angel Grove. I'm halfway there, so wait for it in a few more weeks. Thanks.